Here’s a little something for the 3-day weekend.

I was talking with our part-time EQ employee/part-time quilt shop owner, Margaret, about her recent Block of the Month. She said she did it all in 5-Grid blocks. I asked her how she came up with so many cool designs and she said something so obvious I felt silly for not thinking of it sooner.
A 5-Grid block is just four 4-Patches with a sash. Likewise, a 7-Grid block is just four 9-Patches with a sash.

So, here’s the EQ6 trick…
There are a few ways the background block can be drawn:

Let’s say you want to merge the Hour Glass block with your background 5-Grid with the center sash. Just use BLOCK > Serendipity > Merge Blocks to add the new block to the Sketchbook. Edit the new block from the Sketchbook and copy and paste the corner around to the other spots. Your center sash can be pieced if you like.

So, then this opens up a whole new way of thinking. Take a 6-Grid and merge it with something drawn on a grid of 8 and just have your sash worth 2. Take a 5-Grid and merge it with something drawn on a grid of 7 and have your sash worth 2. Pretty soon you’ll see all sorts of places to merge blocks.

Do you see how these blocks are related???

Have fun playing!